Learning The HandsOn Way
by bunniculasama
Summary: A girl suddenly and inexplicably finds herself traveling with Sanzo and Co.
1. Adventures

Have a wee bit of patience with me; this is my first fic, let alone my first Saiyuki fic. Be Gentle!  
  
Bad tempered monks and cigarette butts, I don't own a thing and I write like a putz.  
  
Learning the Hands on Way; Or How I Did My Homework in a Jeep  
  
I was a... uh, special child growing up. I mean, adventure literally waited around the corner for me, I just knew it. I knew that one day I'd find out I had magic powers, or a prince would arrive on my doorstep and ask for my help to recover his kingdom, or... something. I mean, my imagination didn't just run away with me, it fricking packed me in a crate and shipped me to the moon. As I grew older I started to realize that nothing like that was ever gonna happen, and that I was going to be normal just like everyone else... I think I cried the day it sunk in.  
Anyway... I put this aside and grew up. Life was alright, but dull. Goblins weren't around the corner, waiting to be discovered, and I'm pretty sure that the postman wasn't an evil communist that was hell-bent to take over the world with me being his only road block. I said pretty sure. He does have shifty eyes.... I graduated from dull high school and went off to a dull university. It was about this time that I started zoning out.  
Now, when I say zoning out, I don't mean letting my mind wander, I mean gone. It was always the same. Slowly, the professor's voice would get quieter and quieter until they were simply mouthing words. Fortunately, I never learned to lip read Then things would go blank. I'm pretty sure I wasn't sleeping, but then again, I wasn't aware of anything, I was just gone. Where? Hell if I know. Then *pouf* I was back. It wasn't like anything in particular would bring me back, and I didn't suffer any heinous embarrassment over it, I just tuned out. Like changing the channel on life, or maybe shutting it all off.  
So my parental units found out about this and had me see a shrink... I'm officially ADD... it was a hobby before folks... now it's a realty. However, I'm loathe to take the stupid pills they dish out like candy. Oh hell no, I'll take inky black silence to cocaine's little cousin, Ritalin any day. Thank you. So nothing really changed.  
So I was in Eastern Religion one glorious day, a day meant to be spent frolicking in the grass, singing my lungs out about hills and music, not listening to boy-wonder up there mumble about the roots of Chinese Buddhism. Grr. It was alright though... eventually the darkness came for me again, but this time was different. This time there was a little giggle, I swear I wasn't hallucinating, well, I guess I was cause I was blacked out, but still, I heard a giggle, like the kind a fifteen year old girl gives right before she rats out her best friend's feelings to their crush. Needless to say, it was not your average blackout.  
  
Please review... I'd like to know how horrible I am. ;) 


	2. Walking Without Rhythm

The Jeep Says: Beep! Beep! Hakuryuu Says: Kyu! Kyu! Bunnicula says: Don't sue! Don't Sue!  
  
When I came to, the first thing I registered was the sun. That was a little out of the ordinary... I sat up, trying to figure out where I was an how I got there. I was in a desert, and from the looks of it, the dead middle. There was nothing but sand stretching for as far as I could see. This made me pause, 'cuz last I knew, I was bored out of my mind in class, not in the desert. This raised a few more interesting issues like, what to do now?  
  
I think it was at this point I started laughing. Someone, it seemed had a crazy sense of humor. I mean, I blacked out in class and woke up on my back in the desert. What the hell? I did the only I thing I could do. I stood, brushed myself off, and started walking.  
  
As a warning, I feel I ought to tell you that I read Dune at an impressionable age, so of course, I was frolicking through the desert (not a good idea) singing, "Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm!" Of course I was doing it too. Oh come on, I had to. Anyway, I had randomly chosen a direction, (more Dune advice... any direction on the open bled is as good as another... I'm beginning to think that Frank Herbert never went to the desert. Huh.) when I started to get dizzy. I am not a sun person... I'm an air conditioned basement person, but when in the desert... I just kept going, there wasn't another choice to take, well, maybe sit there and die, but I'm not a quitter.  
  
I may not be a quitter, but as time wore on and the desert didn't get any smaller, my body turned out to be one. I kept on as long as I could, but as the minutes turned to hours, I just gave out. The last thing I remember was seeing the world shift downwards as I fell.  
  
I woke up to cold water. It splashed across my mouth, then dribbled down my chin. Being shocked at the sudden cold, I sputtered, accidentally spitting the water into the face of my rescuer. "Damn... don't you know that good girls swallow, not spit?"  
It was then that I saw red... I was pissed, true, that was a pretty lewd comment, but I literally saw red. The man who knelt before me had a shock of ruby red hair and eyes to match. He was smirking a little, a cigarette practically dripping from his lips. "Girl, can you stand?"  
I nodded my head slowly, taking his proffered hand, but as I rose, my knees gave out and I was sent crashing back to the ground. I landed hard, nearly cracking my head on the sun baked ground. A warm voice came from behind me, "Goyjo, perhaps you should lift her... she's worn."  
  
Weakly, I turned my head to the new voice. It belonged to a tall man with a kind smile and sparkling green eyes. I would be a big liar if I said that I didn't ogle him... him and his friend, Gojyo, however, I kept it brief. No need to embarrass myself. Instead, I turned back to the first man and asked him the question that first jumped in my mind when I saw him. It was pressing, important, and as far as I was concerned, life or death, "Hey," my sun baked voice croaked, "can I bum a smoke?"  
  
He smirked, his shoulders twitching in silent laughter, "Sure, Babe, I'll give you a smoke if you give me a name."  
  
I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, gauging him... then staring his cigarette. "Sara... my name is Sara." 


End file.
